Heaven is a place on Earth
by Elizabehta Beilschmidt
Summary: When Chloe dies before her time she gets to meet Lucifer's dad, and all that such thing entails. Finding out that you are made for the Devil is not easy to digest, but she is Chloe Jane Decker and she is going to kick all the asses that are needed to find answers.


_**[Already posted in ao3.]**_

* * *

Chloe woke up, feeling completely disoriented. It was like last night had been crazy, with alcohol and _ lots _ of wine. It was absurd, of course, as today was wednesday and Trixie had school and she had to get to work -

"Good morning, love," a man's voice said from behind her, and she smiled. She loved that voice. She loved that man. He was her everything, after all.

"Good morning, Dan," the smile in her lips remained as she turned around to kiss him softly. His lips were soft and just everything she wanted in that moment.

"As much as I'd love to stay in bed we need to get ready," he said rubbing her arm in a loving caress, kissing her again.

"Yeah," the woman sighed and got up from bed, stretching and letting her back pop deliciously after a good night's rest-

Wait. No. She had a nightmare. Yes, she remembers something… screaming and adrenaline in her veins and… someone yelling her name? No, not her name. Something she was called.

Chloe shook her head trying to get rid of the disturbing thoughts. It was just a nightmare and she had a lot to do today!

* * *

She arrived at the precinct feeling rejuvenated and ready to face a new day, coffee in one hand. She smiled at her coworkers as she passed by them, humming a catchy song that had been on the radio on her way there.

"Good morning, detective," Chloe heard as she was sitting down on her desk, sipping her delicious coffee. She looked up to find her father there, smiling down at her. As usual.

_ Detective! _

Her heart thumped hard in her chest at the name. At the voice that wasn't her father's.

"Good morning Lieutenant," she managed to say on autopilot, blinking at the weird lapsus. "What do you got for me today?"

John Decker smiled fondly as he sat on her desk and gave her a manila folder. "Not much, could be an easy case. Who knows? Maybe you could call it a day sooner today and spend the evening with your father."

"And why would I do that?" the woman smirked, feeling playful today.

"Because…," the man looked everywhere for witnesses before getting closer to her and whisper in her ear. "Because he misses his monkey from time to time."

Chloe giggled, accepting the folder he was offering her. "We'll see."

The Lieutenant smiled back and retreated back to his office, leaving his best detective with her thoughts. Chloe sipped her coffee again and opened the folder to check the info inside, hoping to actually get an easy case and go home early. She had felt like she was forgetting something since that morning, but after a quick check on her calendar there wasn't any anniversary or birthday coming so it was weird.

Maybe she was tired. Maybe she was overthinking things. She hoped that a quiet evening with her family could banish the disturbing nightmare away from her mind.

She blinked into reality again and read the papers. It seemed pretty straightforward - a man was killed and the main suspect was the wife. Motive and opportunity evident. Easy.

"It seems we are lucky today, partner," she hummed and looked at her right only to find it empty.

A shiver went down her spine. Someone was supposed to be there sitting by her side. She was sure. She felt empty in the way that a part of her routine was absent and she was a woman of habit.

_ Well done, Detective! _

She jumped in her seat, getting up abruptly and looking everywhere for the owner of that voice. She _ knew _ that voice. But there was no one near to say those words.

What the hell was going on?

* * *

Once she got home after doing all the paperwork to close today's case, the detective sighed as she opened the door of her house. Surprisingly, inside was her family waiting for her for dinner. Table set and everything.

"What's the occasion?" she tilted her head, wondering if she did miss a birthday that wasn't written on her calendar.

"Nothing!" Trixie run and tackled her mother, giggling. "We just wanted to surprise you!"

Chloe smiled and hugged her daughter back, smiling up to her beautiful family. Her mother was there, finishing setting the food on the table and wiping her hands on a rag. Her father talked with Dan about something, one hand on the man's shoulder. She stopped for a moment to admire the simplicity of the scene, trying to burn it into her memory to keep in her heart forever. She _ loved _ this people. She was _ loved _ by them.

They sat at the table and began serving the food, but the sensation of missing something pinched her again. What was missing? She blinked and looked everywhere, checking if there was maybe, who knows, something misplaced or something knew they had bought for this "surprise" thingy.

But there was nothing missing. All was well.

They dined and had a great time, played Monopoly and sang some cheesy 90s hits before calling it a night.

As she showered and got ready for bed, she smiled. All was well.

* * *

_ … Detective! _

_ … Please... _

_ Not like this…. please not like this… _

Someone screamed her name. She knew that voice, she knew what was happening.

_ Please, I beg you. _

Who was talking? He sounded desperate. What did he want from her?

_ I'll… I'll behave._

* * *

Chloe woke up, feeling well rested. She blinked a few times trying to wipe the remaining of her nightmare away, taking a mouthful of air to calm her down.

"Good morning, love," a man's voice said from besides her and she turned with a half formed smile on her lips, finding Dan on her bed.

_ Wrong. _

He looked… different.

"Chloe?" he asked with a frown. "Are you okay?"

_ Wrong. _"Yeah. I'm… I'm fine." She sat up on the bed and looked around her, finding nothing out of the ordinary. "I'm a bit tired."

"Had a nightmare again?"

Crashing sound. Gunshots. Screaming. "Yeah, I think."

"Wanna talk about it?" Dan put a hand on her cheek, his piercing blue eyes talking to her soul. She knew that she should feel calmed by his touch, but she just felt _ wrong. _

She shook her head, partly to say that she did not want to talk about it and partly to clear her head from the bad thoughts.

* * *

She arrived at the precinct slightly winded from the crazy morning. Everything looked the same, but didn't feel the same.

Her father was there, waiting at her desk like everyday, with that proud look in his eyes as he watched her approaching him. He was smiling, of course, but it was -

_ Wrong. _

"Good morning, detective," her heart did that uncomfortable _ thump _again. "Are you okay?"

"Why is everyone asking me that today?" she complained as she sat down.

"You look… troubled," the man frowned.

"Well, I am not!" the woman slammed her coffee on her desk. "So stop asking."

"O- okay…," he cleared his throat and gave her a folder. "Here's your new case, anyways."

"Thanks." She didn't look up from the papers. Didn't watch him go away.

Chloe scoffed and turned her attention to the words in front of her, but nothing seemed to make sense. It was okay, she thought. Not always something has to be perfect. She could have a bad day and the world wasn't going to change.

She sipped her coffee, noticing how cold it has become. Had she really spaced out so much? She chuckled and looked up from her desk, just in time to see a tall, dark-haired man in a three piece suit walk by.

Her heart did that thing again, startling her into getting up from her chair.

"Luci… fer...!," she blinked as the name slipped from her mouth. _ Lucifer Morningstar. _

_ God given, I'm afraid, _said the voice in her head.

Wrong. Wrong. Everything was wrong.

What was wrong?

* * *

What was she doing here? She was supposed to be investigating the most recent case, but here she was - an empty nightclub in the middle of the day.

Her body simply did this. She was driving to the crime scene and something in her gut told her to take the exit to this nightclub, and she _ always _ listened to her gut. But why? There was no one here, only cleaning personnel preparing everything for tonight's show.

"How can I help you?" a man approached her with a big smile in his face.

"Are you the owner of this establishment?"

He nodded. "Welcome to my home," he made a gesture to the tables and lights and -

No piano. She remembered a grand piano in the middle of the place?

"Excuse me?" the man's voice brought her back, making her realize that she had said that aloud.

"Nothing. I have a few questions."

"Of course. Follow me."

She had been here before, but it was different. This place - this wasn't _ home. _

Wrong. Everything was wrong.

* * *

She had asked to be shown the penthouse over the nightclub with the excuse of it being connected to a recent investigation. She knew that she was abusing her power, but she had to check… Well. She had to.

But this wasn't what she was expecting to see. The fireplace wasn't there and there were_ too many doors _ than what she remembers. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

No piano. She remembers a melody. Playing besides someone.

_ Lucifer. _

A wind rustles from the open window, pulling her body towards the giant balcony attached to the living room. She follows her instinct and walks out towards the sunlight, but the chills in her body persist.

Something is missing.

"Lucifer Morningstar," she tries the name, feeling strangely calm once she says it.

She looks up at the clear blue sky, wondering who that person is. Of course she _ knows _ the Bible story, the Devil that whispers in your ear. But the Lucifer she thinks about is a… person. Not an idea, a concept, but a human man made of flesh.

She blinks and then is like the world _ changes. _It gets unusually quiet, no cars or birds or people shouting in the street. This is not LA. This is not home.

The wind picks up and the woman grabs the railing for dear life, wondering why there's suddenly such a strong current in a sunny day. It takes her a solid minute to realize that it is not a current. It is…

Wings.

"So," a voice says over the noise. "You are the miracle child."

It's like time stops, and she turns slowly to check who is behind her. She doesn't recognize the voice.

She knows that she should be enraptured by that man's beauty. His hair is coppery brown, curled in perfect shapes, like a renaissance painting by the gods. His eyes, blue beyond reason, are enclosed by long lashes which, with the rest of his features could perfectly make her think he's a woman. Or is he?

"What?" comes weakly from her lips.

Chloe blinks again and sees the enormous white wings behind the androgynous person. How could she not see them before?

Wings.

An angel.

"You have been summoned," the angel said, approaching her with a extended hand. "Be at peace, human."

Chloe Decker barely blinks as she is taken by this angel to God knows where.

* * *

She opens her eyes, fighting to get used to this overwhelming _ light _. Everything is too damn bright and she swears she is going blind!

Where was she? Where was Lucifer?

"Fear not, child," an ominous voice says. She fights to focus on what's in front of her.

Is a man, but is not a man. She can barely see more than the silhouette and the striking bluish-white eyes staring down at her from a throne. Chloe doesn't need to ask aloud to know that she was in front of a being far superior than her, far more powerful. She had never been one to fall for unproven belief, not even religious ones; but something inside of her, an animal instinct, recognized this… being.

God.

"Where am I?" she asked, one hand going for the gun that wasn't there. Of course. "Am I… dead, right?" She narrows her eyes, her brain going at full speed. The screaming, the crash, the pain. "I remember now."

The man nods, and for a moment she sees the face of her own father. But then she blinks and it's gone, replaced by a stranger's face.

"Where's Lucifer? He-" the woman freezes. Lucifer. The Devil. So it was true. All this time.

_ I tell nothing but the truth, Detective! _

"He is not welcomed here," another figure says from behind the throne before approaching them, bright white wings shining under the ridiculously luminous silver of the walls. "Not anymore."

"Cease."

"Yes, father," the angel nods solemnly and stays besides God.

She knows she should be freaking out for meeting God and actual angels but everything she can conjure up is every damn time Lucifer said something about being the Devil or about Hell. Hell is real. And so is Heaven.

Heaven, where she is. Because she is dead.

"Oh, damn." She curses, causing a rustle of feathers from another angel behind her. She turns and finds the androgynous angel from before.

"Watch your words, miracle child," the angel besides the throne steps forward a bit.

"What the _ hell _are you talking about?"

Someone snorts from where she can't see. "Wrong realm."

"Can someone _ please _ give me some answers?" Chloe sighs, changing her weight from one foot to the other. A tiny voice in the back of her head screams that she is taking this too well. "Why am I here? What was that thing from before?"

"You are now in the Silver City, child," the booming voice says with a slightly british accent. "As you noticed, you are dead. But I'm sad to say that you weren't supposed to die yet."

"What?"

"That's why we didn't notice until you were far in the loop," the angel at the right of the throne crosses his arms, narrowing his cerulean eyes at her. Chloe notices that even if the light is almost blinding her, she can perfectly see his every feature; from the dark hair to the square jaw, so similar to Lucifer's, but at the same time tense and perfectly shaven. Brothers.

Angels.

Lucifer is an angel.

"Loop," she tries the word, but nothing makes sense. "Okay. So I'm dead but wasn't supposed to. Now what?"

_ Told you she's good, _a female voice whispers from behind her, and without turning she hears the androgynous angel shush the voice.

Her eyes had adjusted to the light and now she can see the angels surrounding her; wings and feathers all over the place, their weird grey clothes from another time, their blank expressions and apathetic eyes fixed on her. All on her. Watching, judging.

The man on the throne stands up and all the angels around her kneel at the same time, without God ordering them. A shiver goes down her spine as he approaches her slowly, like he has all the time of the world, which in retrospective he indeed has, his steps too quiet for her human ears.

God puts a hand on her shoulder. "You haven't finished your mission on Earth. We are sending you back."

"You are going to… resurrect me?" she tilts her head, ignoring as much as she can the warm and cold hand on her skin. She has skin as a soul? She can't know, nothing makes sense! "Mission?"

"Lucifer," his voice is too loud, but smooth as a whisper, and it takes a moment to adjust. "My… my son."

"Your son."

He nods.

Chloe looks behind his shoulder at the still kneeling angels.

"What about him?" she blinks, admiring the silver walls and the apparently endless hallways full of white doors. "Last thing I remember, he doesn't want anything with me."

_ He kisses me and then marries an exotic dancer. _

Instead of an answer, the man makes a gesture with his other hand and the floor under them changes, showing...

Lucifer sitting on the floor. His clothes are bloody and torn in a lot of places, barely holding together. His hair is all over the place, like he had passed his fingers way too many times through his locks, unkempt and disheveled. His face is hidden behind his folded legs, his arms over his head as if he's trying to cover his ears from something.

Chloe takes a step towards the image, her heart beating fast.

"What's going on?" she turns back at the man. _ God. _

"You have just died back there," he informs her, his father's features coming back to his face. "Time here moves much faster than there, and the accident happened half an hour ago. He did what he could to keep you alive until the medics came but," he looks at her broken body in the image, bloody and pretty much dead. "Your heart stopped."

_ Chloe, please…, _ the Lucifer in the image was weeping. She had never heard his voice sound like that. _ Please don't go where I can't reach you. _

He can't come to Heaven, because he was kicked out eons ago. That's true.

_ Please, I'm sorry. Please come back. Please, Dad. _

An angel snorts, but she can't hear them over the ringing in her ears.

"You weren't supposed to die yet, child," he puts his hand back on her shoulder with the face of a stranger. "You haven't fulfilled your role."

Role?

"You were made to cross paths with my son, child. The miracle child." She doesn't make a sign that she's listening, her eyes fixed on Lucifer's sobbing form and her vacant eyes in the image. God continues talking. "I sent Amenadiel to bless a couple that couldn't have a child. It was the perfect opportunity. You are made to be with him, to guide him and teach him what I couldn't do."

She can feel tears go down her eyes, but she doesn't turn around.

"I'm sorry for all the confusion, but it isn't exactly as I planned things to go. We'll send you back and continue with -"

"And then what?" she cuts him off, sniffling. "I die again? Once I convince Lucifer that being the Devil is bad and that he can be an angel again, what's my use?"

She can hear her partner's voice clearly in her head, complaining about his "Bastard of a Father" that had forced him to bear a punishment he didn't deserve. She can remember every time she cursed that Father that kicked his son out for a disagreement and made his childhood a nightmare, the Father that made her friend's life a living Hell. Literally.

It is then when everything caughts up, and she feels like she can't think anymore. She can't breathe, suddenly asphyxiated in the bright silver room they are in, and the angels around her are looking at her like she just barked in a weird language.

She turns and glares at the deity behind her, shaking his touch away from her skin.

"Then what!?" she repeats. "My daughter, my life, my wishes and dreams… do they mean anything? Were they mine at all? My choices, I -" she takes a mouthful of air trying to calm down. "My feelings… are they - are they mine at all?"

Chloe feels used and just _ wrong. _ All her life, was it just a project? A pet designed to keep the Devil happy and away from trouble? A lollipop to bribe a child? She wants to hate them. All of them. God, Lucifer, the angels. Every one of them. Was Maze on the joke, too? A demon. She was a demon! Did everyone know about this?

Is not fair! All this time… All that made her, well, _ her _. A lie? A pretense? A preambule to her final acquaintance with the Devil? She feels dirty.

"I want to go back," she finally says. Once she's back she's going to give Lucifer a piece of her mind. Did he know? Was he just waiting for the perfect moment to reclaim his prize? His promised bride, made by God as a token of peace. A toy to keep him entertained. He's sooo dead, she swears.

"Child -"

"I want to go back!" she screams, taking a step back. From the corner of her eye she notices the black haired angel raise from his kneeling position, alert. "I don't care about any miracles or, or - I don't know!" the woman glares at God. "I don't _ deserve _ this! I don't deserve to be created for the sole purpose of _ convincing _ the Devil to stop being bad!"

"Technically, all of you humans are created for a purpose." An angel murmures from his position behind her.

"Shut up!" she knows she is going into hysterics, but she doesn't care anymore. What are they gonna do? Kill her? "I don't care. I want to go back!"

A deafening silence fills the place as she breathes to calm down and make the world stop spinning uncontrollably. She looks down at the image of Lucifer and his tear-stained face, his deep brown eyes as they gaze at her dead body, the unnatural fire in them as he frowns and looks up to the sky.

_ Why did you have to take her? _ Says Lucifer. _ What's the great teaching moment, Dear Old Dad? That I can't go back to Heaven? That my power only serves to destruction? Huh!? _ He sighs with an air of defeat, closing his eyes like this was somewhat expected. _ Why did you put her in my path only to take her away? Why make me love her if I'm never going to see her again? _

The fire extinguishes and all that's left is the Lucifer she knows. He laughs without mirth, but doesn't say another word.

"I-," the woman can't keep her eyes away from him. _ Why make me love her? _ "I have to go back."

"Why?" the deity says.

"He has to apologize to me," she bites her lip. "And explain a few things."

"Good, child."

"Cut the act. This isn't about you or my reason to exist or whatever the hell you created me for," she narrows her eyes. "I understand now why he hates you so much. All of you," she makes a gesture around the hall. "Look, I'll… I'll talk to him. With what I know now, I can have a direct conversation with him, no secrets."

She looks back down, missing a meaningful look from God.

"I'll do that, I'll talk to him about it; but in exchange you have to stop meddling with my life. With our lives," she points at the image at their feet. "Leave us out of your so called 'plan'. Do that, and I'll chat with Lucifer about this whole Devil business."

She looks back at the deity, finding the smiling face of John Decker. "It seems we have a deal, child."

She smiles fondly and shakes hands with the god with the face of a dead man. All the angels get up at once in a flurry of white feathers and suddenly she's flying and falling, falling...

* * *

Chloe wakes up, but this time she's not well rested. She is _ hurt _ as _ hell! _

"Ugh…," she manages to say.

"What?"

"Lucifer?" the detective open her eyes, but one is swollen shut. It hurts. "You were right."

He chuckles like he can't believe what's happening. "I usually am. What is it this time?"

"Your dad… is a dick," she smiles at him when he gets in her line of vision. Recognition shines in his eyes.

"I see," he smiles back. "So now you know how truthful I've been all this time, Detective."

"I do," she closes her eyes feeling really tired. Sirens then approach for afar, she can hear them. "We need to talk."

He chuckles, wiping his eyes. "Of course, darling."

* * *

She wakes up again in a hospital bed. She looks around to find way less equipment she had expected after such a horrible accident. Because she remembers now - the kid in the wrong time and place, the screeching of a vehicle out of control and Lucifer's voice from too far away.

"Detective," his voice comes from the door of her room. He has his phone in his hand like he had just finished a call. "You are awake."

Chloe blinks and smiles softly. Instead of addressing her revealing declaration, she opts for sitting up and point at the simple saline bag connected to her arm.

"For a near-death experience I hoped for a more dramatic awakening."

He snorts as he approaches her bed. "The doctors couldn't understand how you survived relatively unscathed. They say it was like -"

"A miracle?" she arches an eyebrow with a knowing smile. "I've heard that a lot just recently."

His smile fades and a tense silence falls over their heads, his eyes searching her face as if he was looking for a sign of some sorts. She stares back with a controlled expression, not letting any kind of feeling show.

"So-"

"I see-"

They speak at the same time, the woman chuckling at how nervous Lucifer seems to be. Now that she _ knows _ it's almost silly to think that this man is the Big Bad Devil everyone fears. She leaves room for the horror and torture and Hell he surely has lived, and she is going to be legitimately scared for sure, but he had never seemed more _ human _ than right now.

"We need to talk."

He nods uncomfortably.

"Whatever my father said, it's probably true," he looks awkwardly through the window and Chloe thinks that he is going to sit down for this particular conversation. He doesn't.

She shrugs. "He said a lot of things." That made him look at her again. "Would you like to sit down?"

"I…," he hesitates, glancing at the hospital chair besides her bed. "I would not…"

"Okay," she smiles and let it slide. "You look like your brother, you know?"

Lucifer blinks at the sudden change of topic. "Which one? In case you haven't noticed already, I have _ lots. _"

"Didn't say his name. But followed your Dad like a lost puppy," she shrugs again and this time she feels the pain of some unseen bruising. "The resemblance is amazing. Except for the eyes."

"_ Michael _," he says the name like some kind of curse, his hands clenched in fists.

_ Wow, _ she thinks. Archangel Michael. _ The _Michael. That Michael.

"What did he do to you?" he asks successfully pulling her out from her shock.

"Nothing. At least to me. He looked like he wouldn't even touch me with a stick if he could help it," he snorts at her words. "Your Dad did all the talking."

"He actually _ talked _ to you? With actual words?" Lucifer blinks. She nods. "Of course. Why bloody bother talking to _ me _ , giving roundabout _ tasks _ and _ tests _ instead!"

"He said something about that, actually," her heart starts picking up. She is nervous even if she tries to keep a straight face.

"My test?"

"My _ mission _."

Another tense silence. She sees now that he _ knew _ about her being a miracle put on Earth by his father to play matchmaker. She wants to feel angry. She wants to cry. How long had he known? Was he waiting for her to actually fall in love for him and then tell her? Was he ever going to stop playing with her, pushing her away and then ask for her forgiveness?

"How long?" He blinks slowly, not understanding. "How long have you known?"

Lucifer glanced quickly at the window again, and Chloe wonders if he is calculating how fast he can reach the floor from there. How fast he can escape this situation.

"Not much. Some months. Around that time when you were poisoned and -" _ And you almost died _, she completes for him in her head. "Amenadiel, he… he recognized your mom."

_ I sent Amenadiel to bless a couple that couldn't have a child. It was the perfect opportunity, _she remembers.

She swallows, preparing herself for the next question. "Why you didn't tell me?"

The Devil scoffs like she just told the most amusing joke. "How? You didn't bloody believe any word I said. 'Good morning, Detective. Nice hairdo today. By the way, you were created by God to have sex with me'," he laughs without mirth as he looks at his hands. "Yeah, sure. Great icebreaker."

Is that all he wants? To sleep with her? That's all it takes to calm down the Devil? The nagging feeling in her gut is eating her from the inside out. She flinches when he makes a move, freezing Lucifer as he reached for the flask in his suit jacket.

"Detective?" his voice is unnaturally soft and quiet.

"He… he didn't exactly used those words," she manages to squeak out, suddenly not being able to breathe enough air. "But I guess it is what it is."

Any playful air she may have had is gone, making her partner notice the haunted look in her eyes. Lucifer tries to reach for her, her name in the tip of the tongue, when the hospital door opens and people start to pour inside in waves. Dan, the child, Ella, Linda... even _ Maze _ is there with a totally controlled bored look in her eyes.

It is exactly Maze who notices the tense air in the room, looking first at Chloe's glassy eyes and then his tense pose. Her mouth twitches imperceptibly and nods.

Taking advantage of the distraction, the Devil vanishes from the room.

* * *

It has been five days, and Chloe is ready to go back to business after a forced time out from work to 'get better'. She laughs at the thought. Physically she was a hundred percent practically the same day she woke up in the hospital. Some bruises took a while to disappear, but they eventually did and all marks from her miraculous survival went away.

Emotionally… she had been trying to wrap her head around the idea of being some kind of arranged bride for the Devil. She had looked at her life, rethinking all her decisions, wondering how much or how little each one of them had placed her in Lucifer's path. Was she supposed to become a cop? To have Trixie? To… dunno, to make the effort of befriending her weird partner? She thought she loved him. Was that real?

Some time in the night between the fourth and the fifth day she came to the realization that, yeah, she was going insane thinking that every little moment with Lucifer was premeditated; but didn't he say that he met her without knowing? That he found out around the time she was poisoned, when she had already kissed him and -

The beach. They had kissed and she was sure of her decision and she _ loved _him as she thought he loved her. He had said he was vulnerable around her, too. He had memorized stupid facts about her life that no one bothered to learn (she could bet a leg that no one at the precinct knew her middle name).

A memory struck her when the clock by her bed showed 2 am in her fifth sleepless night. _ Did you know, too? _ he had said when he found her bleeding _ that _night. He was furious and any other moment she would have given him hell (no pun intended) for stomping into her house so late at night. Back then she was only thinking about her probable death and didn't register his words.

Maybe he… maybe he was rethinking every decision, every hug and _ moment _ they could have had together. Thinking that he had found someone to be just himself with and discover that that person has been created for such end. She was reminded of that time Trixie was upset when she had tried to make the other children include her in their game in a classmate's birthday party.

Chloe sighed and got up, accepting that she wasn't going to get any sleep now. She walked down the steps to the kitchen, getting the lights on since Trixie was with Dan for the weekend and Maze was lately out all the time. What a lonely weekend she was going to have.

The woman poured a glass of milk and took a deep gulp trying to make sense of her thoughts. Her wants.

Her best friend was the Devil and she was created by God to convince him to stop his millenia old tantrum. No biggie. And she had died and went to Heaven to find this out, too; a fact that with all the fussing over her decisions not being hers had went unnoticed.

She had actually _ died. _

She sighed feeling tired beyond the accumulated lack of sleep. It was like her soul was tired, too. She didn't like this feeling, but there was little she could do if -

She glanced at her kitchen clock. 3:13 am. It was late for phone calls, right? She could call Lucifer in the morning, ask him if he was up to meet with her and finish their talk from the hospital. What was left to say, though? The thought paralyzed her hand. She knew the truth and all that was left was accepting her destiny as Lucifer's… whatever she was right now.

Did she? It was what God wanted, right? She chuckles as she remembers who her friend actually is and what's his opinion regarding God's wishes. _ He can shove them up his bloody arse for all I care! _Yeah, that sounds more like him.

She misses him.

* * *

Lux is filled to the brim by the time she arrives after a quick decision to drop by unannounced. She knows she should have at least called or texted to see if he was sleeping or, well, _ not alone _ for the night. But she's already there by the time she realizes it, so…

Chloe manages to reach the elevator, feeling completely out of place in her jeans and white t-shirt, as she did every time she went to his nightclub for whatever reason. Knowing that she is supposed to be a part of his life never made any less sense than it did right there, under the numbing noise and the lights and the people dancing their worries away. She wasn't like this. Like him.

The ride up is quiet and she uses it to calm down and focus on the plan; she is going to stay put until she discerns if he's with company, and if he's not, check if he's sleeping. Only then approach him. Easy, quick, normal. They are supposed to be friends, right?

Turns out he's alone, at least, by the lack of moaning and sexual noises, so the detective padded toward the stairs to the bedroom quietly, in case he's sleeping.

"Coming to fulfil my father's wishes?" his voice stops her one foot in the bedroom. She turns around and finds him in the library area, sitting down in a reading chair with a glass of whisky. "If you wanted to seduce me, darling, those clothes aren't doing the job. Maybe I can help you slip into something better?"

His eyes aren't like fire, but the reflecting light from the elevator on the dark brown may as well look like it.

"I'm not here to seduce you."

"Going for a more 'pure and chaste virgin' approach?" he takes a sip from his drink. "Because I can be into it."

"I wanted to talk," she walks towards him, ignoring how he tenses his shoulder with each step. "We were… interrupted."

He nods like he understands. "Any new thoughts after five days?" Lucifer gulps down the rest of his drink and puts down the empty glass, but doesn't stand up. He watches her every more like a predator analyzing their next victim. "Any new divine revelations from my Dear Old Dad?"

"Lucifer," she sighs and crosses her arms. "I'm not here to fight."

"Ahh, I understand. Make love, not war, yes?" he smiles, but his smile doesn't reach his eyes.

Chloe takes a deep breath, counting to ten in her head. He is upset, and when he is upset he lashes out. It's what he's used to. "I've been thinking," she starts with her eyes closed, successfully ignoring his scoff. "And I'm tired of thinking."

"Huh?"

"Yeah," she opens her eyes and sits down on the piano bench, a safe distance from him but still being able to look at him eye to eye. "This… revelation has turned my world upside down. Everything I thought was a myth exists and I died and angels exist and _ God _ talked to me and…," she breathes to calm down, "and my best friend is the Devil." She snorts at the phrase. "And I made a deal with God to come back to life."

"What?" this caught his attention. "A deal? With Dad?"

He stands up and prowls towards her. Chloe notices his rumpled clothes and disheveled hair. He doesn't look like he got out much these days.

"What did he want from you?"

She smiles. "If you listen to me I'll tell you."

"Cheeky," this time the smile seems more genuine. He walks towards the bar and pours a new glass for him before sitting down on the piano bench by her side. She remembers a moment like this. "All right, I'll listen."

She takes a breath and tells him about what had been eating her, from the weird experience in the Heaven loop to her conclusions about how horrible is to have your own choices being taken away from you. He just drinks quietly and nods from time to time, digesting her words without making a gesture in agreement or disagreement. Encouraged by his silent support, she explains further how she feels and confesses how dirty she feels at having been created for the sole purpose of… well, 'convincing' him to stop being 'bad'.

"... The thing is," she gulps down feeling her throat dry after so much talking. "I don't want to do any of it. And it scares me that somehow, since I'm destined to do it, I'll be forced to think it's what I want."

He nods slowly. "I understand. I wouldn't like it either," he closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. "If it's any consolation, I can be far away from you for the rest of your life. No worries about crossing paths again. I promise."

"Huh?" she gets up suddenly. "What are you talking about?"

Lucifer opens his eyes and tilts his head. "I'm talking about removing any possibility of you having to love me. I wouldn't like it either if a celestial being forces me to care about the Devil."

She scoffs. "I wasn't talking about that, idiot. I don't care about you being the Devil."

"You don't?" he arches an eyebrow, igniting his eyes with hellfire. She gulps as her heart stops for a brief moment.

"I'm adjusting okay? This is still new to me," she crosses her arms over her chest, looking down at him until he blinks again and his eyes are back to normal. "But what upsets me has nothing to do with you. Not how you think."

"Enlighten me, please," he makes a gesture to her vacated seat. She sits down and sighs.

"I love the way you are. Even when I thought you were just insane and this whole 'Devil' business was a product of your imagination, you always managed to cheer me up and, well… make me feel comfortable in my own skin," she looks down at the lid of his grand piano. "I don't want to be part of this, forcing you to change. I don't want to feel like I have to change you to be happy around you. It's just… _ wrong _."

He doesn't say anything, but the detective is too coward to look up from such declaration. After rethinking so many decisions how could she know that her feelings for him are real? But she was tired of guessing and thinking. Was this how he felt all the time?

"I made a deal with Him," she continued looking at her hands. "He promised to let us go. No 'Plan' or meddling with our lives."

"Really?"

She nods, not looking up at his surprised voice. "In exchange of convincing-"

The woman jumps in her place when a sudden realization hits her like a wrecking ball. Her heart going at full speed, her hands trembling and a nervous chuckle in her lips; she has little time to register Lucifer's confused stare like she had lost her mind. Maybe she had. Because she couldn't have just thought-

"Chloe?" his voice cuts through her epiphany. She looks up to find him on the verge of an emotional show he had never given her before. "Is everything okay?"

"Lucifer, we are _ free, _" she breathes with difficulty. "We…"

"You are doing that weird witch-on-crack laugh again, Chloe," he eyes her with distrust. "What's going on?"

Instead of an answer, the woman kisses him softly on the lips, or at least as soft as one could do while vibrating with excitement.

"I have realized something important," she smiles at his dumbfounded expression. Is not an easy task to surprise the Devil. Chloe kisses him again.

"As much as I like where this is going, I would like to be on the loop here, Detective."

"Yeah, yeah… Let me… uh, take a breath," she takes his abandoned Scotch from the piano and gulps down the remaining of it. "I think I have tricked God."

He arches an eyebrow. "How?"

"Well… I said I would talk to you in exchange of being freed from the 'Plan'," he nods slowly. "My exact words were _ 'I'll talk to him about it' _ and… I already did! I didn't say anything about _ actually _ convincing you to stop antagonizing the-"

She didn't get to finish the sentence, because once her words were registered, Lucifer jumped from the piano bench and grabbed her for a kiss. It was intense and ignited, much different than the other soft and careful kisses they had exchanged before. She decided she liked it.

"Wicked woman," he smiles on her lips.

"You can say I learned from the best."

He snorts at her words, but doesn't say anything else, too overwhelmed with what was happening. When Chloe arrived at his home this is not how he expected things to end at all. Not that he was complaining.

* * *

Hours later they could be found in his bed, with actual clothes on (surprisingly so), and cuddling. She could feel Lucifer's warm breath against her neck, and wondered if he had fallen asleep after all. She hadn't had a lot of opportunities to watch him in such a vulnerable state, but the sudden want to be there every time he woke up in the mornings crashed in her chest with fury. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Detective," his raspy voice caressed her skin as his arms tightened around her. His heat was almost unbearable, but Chloe supposed that a bit longer in his arms was worth it. "I…"

She hums softly, letting him gather his thoughts at peace. She feels him take a calming deep breath.

"Thank you."

Chloe closes her eyes, feeling the unsaid words beneath the simple 'thank you' that seems so hard to say for him. She hums again in response, turning in her place in his arms to look at him in the eye. The woman speaks as if the tears in his eyes are not there.

"You are very welcome," she kisses him softly in the lips, reaching with one hand to cup his cheek. He leans into the touch. "I love you."

Chloe smiles at his wild expression, suddenly at loss of words. She knows that it is too sudden, too soon, to say anything like this; but she doesn't care anymore. She is not expecting him to say it back or acting as if they could be together forever and ride into the sunset. But she had died once. She wasn't going to waste more time dancing around misunderstandings.

"I - I…"

"Don't." She stops him with a kiss. "I just want you to know. I hope you believe me now that your Father is not meddling with our lives."

"I do," he nods softly.

A comfortable silence falls between them, noises of the city below them coming from the opened windows, and Chloe can feel herself fall asleep right there and then. With the incoming dawn breeze his heat is like her own cozy blanket.

Maybe she did, because when Lucifer moves and she opens her eyes it's bright outside. Chloe blinks and stretches, feeling a degree too warm to her liking.

"I think I'm going to spontaneously combust," her voice comes a bit coarse with sleep.

Lucifer chuckles and looks down at her with his impossible dark eyes. "Darling, if that's your way of telling me I'm hot you should have just said it."

"Hot as Hell, indeed," something red sparkles in his eyes at her comment. She shivers without meaning to. "But as much as I enjoy your company I think I need to use your bathroom."

He hums in response as she wiggles out of his arms. His hand twitches at the absence of her warmth, but he doesn't make a move to keep her in bed with him. Still, his eyes follow her every move like a hawk.

Chloe looks back at the domestic scene of Lucifer lazing in bed, hair all over the place, clothes wrinkled beyond repair and a serene smile on his full lips. She smiles, enjoying the wave of warmth that had nothing to do with the remaining heat on her skin. Her chest swells with a feeling of completion, of giddyness and happiness, that engulfs all of her thoughts. _ Is this paradise? _

It hits her like a wrecking ball. Paradise. She had tasted that already, even if for a short while, and it was nothing like what she was seeing.

With a blink she realized why it was.

"Everything alright, love?" his voice purrs but his eyes are full of concern. Chloe blinks slowly, smiling.

"I just realized something," she cocks her head, considering all of him stretched on the bed.

"That I'm nice to look at?" he arches an eyebrow with a tiny smile, his hand making a wide gesture over his body.

"No. It's something different." She takes a breath, feeling the memories of her Heaven Loop fill her head. "When I was - well, dead," he flinches at her words, "I was trapped in a loop. Up there." She points at the ceiling and speaks low in case someone was listening. She knows it's silly, but it feels like the reasonable thing.

"Heaven loops," he nods, frowning. Where is she going with this? "They are supposed to be an endless paradise of everything good happening over and over again."

Her eyes fills with tears, remembering her father. "Yes. My father was there."

"That's good!" he smiles and she can see is genuine. "Did you… uh, have fun?"

She shakes her head. "No. No, I didn't."

"Huh? That's weird. Is Dad starting to get old? Mistakes in the system?" that brings a small smile that leans towards childish. She shakes her head again.

"No. I mean, I don't know. At first it was nice, but then I realized it wasn't real and that's how they found me," she shrugs.

"Well done, Detective!"

Chloe smirks. "You weren't there. That's how I found out."

His eyes widen in surprise. "Uh…" his hand clenches on the sheets. "I'm… glad?"

His confusion is amusing, making her smile more. "It couldn't be Paradise without you," he blinks fast as he lets her words sink in. Chloe nods once her work is done there and turns around towards the en suite bathroom to have a well earned shower. As she crosses the threshold, a funny thought comes to mind and she turns to execute her evil deed before she chickens out.

"You could say that…," she bites her lip, not missing Lucifer's eyes wandering towards her mouth, "Heaven is missing an angel."

She can see the moment the lame pickup line registers in his mind because he freezes and looks back at her eyes with an emotion radically different than the one before. She knows she won when he starts to growl and narrows his eyes. It didn't escape her either when his hand reaches for a pillow.

"No!" he growls.

She laughs as she sprints towards the bathroom, barely missing the thrown pillow at her person. She closes the door to block the screams of bloody murder coming from the Devil at the other side.


End file.
